Going Digital? Don’t Go it Alone

Shortly after the White House set up the new U.S. Digital Service last summer, bringing in Google’s Mikey Dickerson to lead the effort to “build the federal government’s capacity to deliver world-class services to the American people,” the group posted its first product, the Digital Services Playbook.

Shortly after the White House set up the new U.S. Digital Service last summer, bringing in Google’s Mikey Dickerson to lead the effort to “build the federal government’s capacity to deliver world-class services to the American people,” the group posted its first product, the Digital Services Playbook.

On November 16, 2016 MeriTalk held its third annual Big Data Exchange Brainstorm as we explored the future for Big Data as an asset, not just a buzz word. IoT – Unleash the Power of Big Data to Improve Government Outcomes More than any other tech trend, IoT will fundamentally change our society — from healthcare […]
[…]

It’s really a checklist of 13 “key plays” agencies leaders must make in order to push through a successful tech project:

Understand what people need

Address the whole experience, from start to finish

Make it simple and intuitive

Build the service using agile and iterative practices

Structure budgets and contracts to support delivery

Assign one leader and hold that person accountable

Bring in experienced teams

Choose a modern technology stack

Deploy in a flexible hosting environment

Automate testing and deployments

Manage security and privacy through reusable processes

Use data to drive decisions

Default to open

Each step includes a checklist and questions to consider in laying out and executing a plan. The fundamental idea is this: remember that someone has already done what your agency wants to do, so don’t think you have to start from scratch – intellectually, that is.

The Digital Service team, which works out of OMB, already has started work on a revised version of the playbook. They are soliciting comments for the new version here, and people have already proposed hundreds of comments including more “plays.” No word yet on when Digital Service will publish volume two, but we’ve asked.

Before he left his post as Federal CIO last year, Steve VanRoekle told the Washington Post that the Digital Service team “isn’t going to be a group that we parachute in to write code.” Rather, the focus is going to be on helping agencies figure out where their weak points are – and how to fix them. “Think of this as [a team of] management consultants that helps you understand your gaps.”